Today we’re adding a new feature to the Google+ platform: application sign-in. Whether you’re building an app for Android, iOS or the web, users can now sign in to your app with Google, and bring along their Google+ info for an upgraded experience. It’s simple, it’s secure, and it prohibits social spam. And we’re just getting started.

In this initial release, we've focused on four key principles to make things awesome for users:

1. Simplicity and security come first
If you sign in to Gmail, YouTube or any other Google service, you can now use your existing credentials to sign in to apps outside of Google. Just review the Google+ permissions screen (outlining the data you're sharing with the app, and the people who can see your activity), and you're all set. Google+ Sign-In also comes with the protections and safeguards you’ve come to expect from your Google account (like 2-step verification), so you can always sign in with confidence.

Managing your signed-in apps is easy too: visit plus.google.com/apps at any time, or open the new Google Settings app on Android.

2. Desktop and mobile are better together
Many developers offer web and mobile versions of their app, yet setting things up across a browser, phone and tablet is still a major hassle. Starting today, when you sign in to a website with Google, you can install its mobile app on your Android device with a single click.

3. Sharing is selective; spraying is just spam
Sometimes you want to share something with the world (like a high score), but other times you want to keep things to yourself (like fitness goals). With Google+ Sign-In and circles you decide who to share with, if at all. In addition: Google+ doesn’t let apps spray “frictionless” updates all over the stream, so app activity will only appear when it’s relevant (like when you’re actually looking for it).

4. Sharing is for doing, not just viewing
Pictures and videos are great for viewing, but sometimes you actually want to do stuff online. That's why, when you share from an app that uses Google+ Sign-In, your friends will see a new kind of "interactive" post in their Google+ stream. Clicking will take them inside the app, where they can buy, listen to, or review (for instance) exactly what you shared.

If you’re building an app for Android, iOS or the web, and you’d like to include Google+ Sign-In, simply dive into our developer docs and start checking stats once your integration is live. Android apps will require the latest version of Google Play Services, which is rolling out to all devices in the next day or so.

To see what other developers are doing with Google+ Sign-In, just visit any of the following sites, and look for the new "Sign in with Google" button (also rolling out gradually):

21 comments
:

I thought that was unnecessary, and frankly unprofessional and disrespectful to a major rival.

Google should instead focus on their own platform. The corporation seems locked in a pathological pattern of habits, from trivial sniping at rivals to grand tax-avoidance.

I was impressed to see that the quick start guide for Google+ Platform integration features .NET among other platforms. This seems a refreshing departure from Google's usual attempts to overlook and even downplay Microsoft and its technologies (in line with Google's shameful "Gang of Four" propaganda model).

The developers (sorry "engineers") forgot to make the Git repos public -- so they're promoting the quick start guide which links to source code nobody can access. The URLs on Google's documentation all give (404 errors).

The official Google+ profile on Github has a grand total of two members (both Google staff).

Much like Google+ its self, this big announcement is not exactly buzzing with comments, either, despite being heavily promoted by every tech website I know simultaneously.

If Google want people to use this, they need to give us URLs that work.

@scott See Cecil's post above, but in fact all Git repo URLs in the official Google+ Platform quick start documentation return 404 -- because the repos either do not exist or more likely are not set to allow public access yet. :)

@scott I can confirm I'm referring to the Git repo URLs provided in the Google Developers documentation, which do not exist.

I do sometimes encounter errors on Google Developers (and other Google documentation sites including AdSense etc), ranging from occasional Internal Server Error messages today to broken external links like these. I always try to report them. Folks at Google must be aware that it's easy to automatically crawl pages for broken links as part of ongoing QA/monitoring.

Other broken link examples I encountered today in case it helps:

On this page:https://developers.google.com/commerce/wallet/digital/articles/usingopenidThe "article written by the Open ID team" is a broken link:https://developers.google.com/intl/pl/appengine/articles/openid

I sometimes wonder if humans other than me actually look at these pages, let alone Google's own vast legions of staff checking official pages sometimes.

Other examples just from today's browsing:

On this page, the various external URLs linked to from the Google Developers pages are broken links:https://developers.google.com/commerce/wallet/digital/docs/samples#iap-java

The JWT spec link is outdated here and should be updated:https://developers.google.com/commerce/wallet/digital/docs/libraries

Hire me, Google. I can improve your service. I'm serious. But you won't, and perhaps therein lies the problem... ;)

@Scott Knaster do you know if that will be soon later today or much later today? Should I keep trying or come back tomorrow?

I'm probably teaching grandma to such eggs here, but if Google is makes an announcement like this and briefs multiple tech websites, it's daft to have URLs that don't work.

The initial experience of the community with Google+ Platform has not been good. The most eager developers are following your links and getting 404 errors. Dude! Documentation with crucial URLs giving 404 errors is not what we expect from one of the world's richest corporations. Do you test stuff before you go public? All you needed to do is set access to public on the Git repos.

I never reply to troll comments like Tim, but it's "Suck" eggs, not "Such". You seem pretty committed to criticizing the work of others, and yet I'm not even sure you read your comments before they go, 'public'.

Please get rid of the separate app and integrate it in Settings, where almost all included settings can already be found anyway.The separate app is just annoying and unnecessary (plus it's making a lot of people angry, just read the recent reviews in google play.)

I have been curious about why Google did not do exactly that. They chose the complex way rather than the easy way. Maybe they just wanted a stand-alone product to announce, but they missed the point lol.

BTW, it's ridiculous for Fitbit to use this system when Android does not include Bluetooth LE (so Fitbit devices cannot even synchronise via Android devices). Only some of the Samsung devices have BLE implementation.